November 19, 2015

Islamic State claims attempted assassinations in Rajpur

As previously reported, on the morning of November 8, three assailants on a motorcycle attacked a Bahai man, Ruhul Amin, who is active at the Rangpur Bahai Centre. On November 18, a very similar attempted assassination in the same city targetted a 64-year-old Italian physician, Piero Parolari, who was shot in the neck by three assailants riding a motorbike. Mr Parolari is assistant pastor of the Dinajpur parish. He was attacked as he was cycling to Saint Vincent Hospital to provide free treatment to tuberculosis patients.

The SITE Intel Group, a US-based terrorism monitoring organisation, has stated that Islamic State, speaking via twitter and the Amaq News Agency, has claimed responsibility for both these attacks, in addition to three recent attacks that killed Rahma Ali, a politician [not confirmed ~Sen]; Cesare Tavella, an Italian aid worker working for a Christian organisation based in the Netherlands, and Kunio Hoshi, a Japanese agricultural worker.

With regard to the latest attacks, the district Detective Branch’s officer-in-charge Rezwan Rahim said they have nothing concrete right at the moment, not even a clue.

…, Daesh on Thursday also claimed the shooting of a Baha’i community faith leader and the killing of a Sufi site chief earlier this month in Rangpur, close to where Parolari was shot.
Police officials however told AFP they believed “internal disputes” were behind the deaths of the Baha’i and Sufi leaders.

[ISIS] …The outfit also claimed two operations in Rangpur including an attack on a Bahai community leader, according to Rita Katz, director of SITE intelligence group, who posted the information on her official twitter handle.